Cameron Smith misses 54-hole cut at ISPS Handa Australian Open, Adam Scott leads

Cameron Smith shot a 69 in the third round of the ISPS Handa Australian Open, but it wasn't enough to see him into the final round on home turf.

Matt Chivers's picture
Sat, 3 Dec 2022
Cameron Smith misses 54-hole cut at ISPS Handa Australian Open, Adam Scott leads

After winning the Australian PGA Championship for the third time last week, Cameron Smith has bowed out of the ISPS Handa Australian Open after the 54-hole cut.

The Champion Golfer of the Year scraped through the 36-hole cut with a total of 2-over. But he could only manage a score of 1-under at Victoria Golf Club in the third round.

Smith was two shots shy of the next cut which stood at 1-under. DP World Tour star Ryan Fox fell just short of the mark too on level-par as the top 35 players and ties made it through in both the men's and women's tournaments.

The 29-year-old described his golf in the first round at the same venue as "pretty rubbish." An incredible shot from a divot hole in the middle of the fairway on Thursday has been one of his only highlights.

As for the players at the top of the leaderboard, Adam Scott will take a one-shot lead over Adrian Meronk into the final round after the Aussie eagled the final hole of his round yet again at Victoria Golf Club.

The 2009 Australian Open champion carded a 3-under 67 to take a narrow lead on 11-under over DP World Tour star Meronk who is looking for his second win of the year.

Min Woo Lee carded an impressive 65 to get to within four shots of Scott on 7-under, while the young Dane Nicolai Hojgaard is six shots behind on 5-under.

"I think I actually played at least as well, if not better, than I did yesterday. It just was one of those days where the numbers never fell into a great spot to challenge a back flag and risk going over," Scott said.
"We played on a very kind of safe line and centre of the green, which left me a lot of long putts that you don’t always make and just tried to keep hitting good shots. In the end a couple of opportunities showed up and I took advantage of them.
"It’ll just depend on the pins for one, see where they are because that kind of dictates the way you can play these courses. You can get in a lot of trouble on the wrong side of some pins and it’ll also depend on what the rest of the field’s doing.
"If someone starts hot and gets running, then I’m going to make sure I’m running with them. I’m not thinking that Old Man Par is going to be just winning me the tournament tomorrow."